Runner,
the lefties must be writhing in frustration for having failed to drag Noel Pearson down to their mentality.

Give the entire country - 'lock stock & barrel' back to the various Northern Land Councils, Central Land Councils et al for 5 years... no interference from Kartiya laws, 'Do Good' Whiteys, & let's watch the whole lot slide into oblivion.

Then when it is a complete cesspit - because most of these oxygen thieves want to live like what you actually see around any NT population centre, maybe the UN will see it for what it is and actually take notice of folks who have tried to convince paternalistic government(s) & vested interests from throwing good money at the "problem".

Port Keats, Nguiu, Borroloola, Tennant Ck, Katherine, doesn’t matter where, because alcohol, gunja, amphetamines and other illicit commodities are being smuggled in under the noses of authorities anyway. I personally observed Sylvatech employees plying under age local girls with booze & dope & rang the local NT cop. Writing personally to Marion Scrymgour, & other MLA’s had no effect, & I only ever got an ‘official’
acknowledgement from the then Chief Minister - who happened to be my neighbour.

Like career Centrelink recipients of more reflective skin qualities, the career oxygen thieves are on a gravy train of epic proportions. The Intervention was (& still is) an ongoing farce. Witness the Territory Alliance shemozzle & other rorts by contractors ongoing in communities.

Ozandy, your friend from Batchelor is not alone, nor is he an isolated example of his kinfolks plight, there are many in similar straits all over Oz.

One wonders at a "human rights" campaigner in denial of the realities she writes about. She says:

"The implication of this statement being that it is broadly applicable to Aboriginal people - children don’t attend school, alcohol is abused, and opportunities for work ignored."

Regrettably schools with high Aboriginal populations continue to have attendance well below average and in a number of remote regions up to 70% of children do not regularly attend school.

Not all aboriginal people drink, but those who do have binge rates well above the rest of the population and can render whole communities dysfunctional. Substance abuse is endemic in what are supposed to be dry communities and recent press coverage of the state of Alice Springs is a further demonstration.

Unemployment is three time higher than for non indigenous people, despite 70% of Aboriginal people living within mainstream employment markets - where there is near full employment and labour shortages. CDEP was not "employment", it was largely dysfunctional and called sit down money. Importantly, the writer sought to characterise unemployment only as a feature of remote communities.

The inference that all of Aboriginal land has been compulsorily acquired is a simple fabrication. Around 1-2% of Aboriginal land was acquired under 5 year leases in the NT, on just terms, in order to guarantee access to publicly funded spaces. It had nothing to do with mining as at least one poster suggested because 98% of the broadacre holding in the NT remains in the direct hands of the traditional owners. Again, while the "gap" applies broadly, it is worth noting that 60% of Aboriginal people have no connection with traditional land and the Intervention measures only applied in the NT.

Notably she ignores Income Management. Because it has been shown to work?

The gap is largely economic and when children go to school and people are in real jobs, much of the gap will disappear, including the health gap because those in regular employment and who have completed school have 20% better health outcomes than those who do not.

Thank you Gobsmacked. It is rare to see somebody who has informed, balanced and factually-based views bothering to make a posting on these sites in debates over Indigenous issues. If only Michele Harris was willing to do some detailed research before she decides to pontificate to us about things of which she has so little direct knowledge. I hope she reads your posy and takes it seriously.